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Demontestament
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[QUOTE]WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty on four of five counts in his perjury and obstruction of justice trial.

Libby was convicted of:

obstruction of justice when he intentionally deceived a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame;

making a false statement by intentionally lying to FBI agents about a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert;

perjury when he lied in court about his conversation with Russert;

a second count of perjury when he lied in court about conversations with other reporters.

Jurors cleared him of a second count of making a false statement relating to a conversation he had with Matt Cooper of Time magazine.

Libby, 56, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. A hearing on a presentencing report is scheduled for June 5.

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said, "He is virtually certain to go to prison if this conviction is upheld."

After the verdict was read, Libby was fingerprinted and released on his own recognizance.

Ted Wells, Libby's defense attorney, said he will file a motion for a new trial, or appeal the conviction if that motion is denied.

"We intend to keep fighting to establish his innocence," Wells said outside the courthouse.

As court concluded Tuesday, Libby's wife, Harriet Grant, hugged every member of the defense team. She was teary-eyed as she kissed Wells on the cheek.

The White House issued a statement that President Bush watched the verdict and was saddened for Libby and his wife.

Libby, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was not accused of exposing Plame. He resigned in 2005 after the grand jury indicted him.

"It's sad that we had a situation where a high-level official, a person who worked in the office of vice president, obstructed justice and lied under oath, and we wish that had not happened but it did," Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said.

No further charges are expected in the case, Fitzgerald said, and no further investigation was planned.

"We're all going back to our day jobs," Fitzgerald said outside the courthouse. "If the information comes to light, or new information comes to us that would warrant us taking some action, we will do that."

Prosecutors contended Libby disclosed Plame's covert profession to reporters as part of a plan to discredit her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who alleged that the Bush administration twisted some intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Wilson, who conducted a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger, wrote in a July 2003 New York Times editorial that he found no evidence Iraq sought to buy uranium from the African nation, as the administration claimed.

A statement from lawyers representing Plame and Wilson said the couple was pleased by the verdict and believed justice had been served.

But the Wilsons said they would continue to pursue a civil case against Cheney, Libby, Bush's adviser Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

"The criminal trial was about whether or not Mr. Libby obstructed justice and committed perjury by lying to FBI agents and the grand jury about the fact that he had disclosed to reporters that Valerie Wilson worked for the CIA.

"The civil suit, on the other hand, hinges on whether or not the defendants violated the constitutional rights of Valerie and Joe Wilson by making those disclosures in a concerted effort to retaliate against Joe Wilson for revealing the falsity of the president's rationale for the Iraq war," the statement said.

The jury was down to 11 members -- seven women and four men. A week ago, one of the jurors revealed that she had obtained outside information that prompted the judge to disqualify her.

The defense said it would accept 11 jurors to avoid having to start deliberations over with an alternate. The prosecution objected, but U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton overruled, and the panel has continued with one chair empty.

Testimony and evidence in the trial began January 23.
[/QUOTE]

And the sad thing is that he will not be in jail long. I can see Bush issuing a pardon in a month or two when people don't care anymore. I mean he already states he was saddened by the verdict so you know he is going to do the best he can to get his corrupted buddy out of jail. When you look at the over 100 people he has pardoned most of them are criminals charged with business fraud and drug possession. So he will pardon a true criminal because they are buddies or bussiness friends but he will not pardon two border patrol agents who were falsely imprissoned by a corrupt Attorney General who is in the pocket of the mexican drug cartel.

__________________

RIP Ernest Gary Gygax July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008

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